Among the Mansions of Eden: Tales of Love, Lust, and Land in Beverly Hills, by David Weddle. This is a book about Beverly Hills - its history, its demographics, and some of its most interesting characters. The author is a great story teller.

Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box, by the Arbinger Institute. My boss recommended this. It's kind of an introspective look at the way we should deal with others in the workplace. Rather than focus on others' faults, we should focus on our own. In fact, the book seems to argue that most of our problems are our own making.

The Natural History of the Rich, by Richard Conniff. The author studies the rich as a naturalist might study some exotic monkey. Some good anecdotes.

The novel I'm on right now is The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. This one has a gruesome premise. A dead girl tells the story (from Heaven) of life on Earth after her brutal rape and murder.

I'm going on a business trip to China for a week, starting this Saturday. That means no posts from me during that time - China restricts access to blogspot. Y'all have a good week.